June 13 paper by Poucher & King ACENETC2011

1. Evaluating a Digital Distance Learning System for Latin
America: A Central American Success Story
BY: Don Poucher, University of Florida (Retired) and Dave King, Oregon State
University; Association for Communications Excellence; Denver, Co. June 13, 2011.
Introduction
Zamorano University is an international university in Honduras with an academic
focus on agricultural and natural resource development.
Over 18-months, June 2004-March 2006, Don Poucher from the University of Florida
and Dave King from Oregon State University helped Zamorano University faculty
create, from scratch, the foundation for a distance education program and form support
networks for problem- and knowledge-based learning communities of interest. Subject
matter expertise, content, and technology were selected and adapted to develop five
modules for use across Zamorano’s academic, service, and outreach/research areas. The
modules included:
• Ruminant Nutrition
• Basic Marketing
• Developing and Marketing New Food Products
• Water Quality and Management
• Experiential Small Plots
Through a series of five day workshops, the goal was to provide information that
allowed local faculty and staff at Zamorano to effectively build their own program, and,
at the same time, create a network of resources that they access for information and
support. The program supported resident as well as distance academic programs and
outreach. Seven workshops were held over the 18-month period.
In addition, the effort focused on bridging the cultural uniqueness of educational
programs in Latin America and the United States. With a goal of establishing a longer-
term network of contacts, participants in the workshops established the human
connections needed to share information, programs, and learning modules in both
directions to and from learners.
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2. Dave King (L) and Don Poucher during e-learning class break at Zamorano University.
PAC @ D: Zamorano’s Distance Education (e- learning) Program
In the end, Zamorano University faculty created an effective, scalable, world class
distance education (e-learning) program for serving learners throughout Latin America
through digital access. The program is known as PAC @ D (Programa de Aprendizaje
Continuo a Distancia). The program is administered by Zamorano’s Global Center for
Distance Learning. The Center was created in 2006 and began developing the PAC @ D
with assistance from a program advisory committee comprised of the following: Dave
King, Associate Vice Provost at Oregon State University; Don Poucher, Assistant Vice
President, University of Florida; Rolando Flores, Professor of Food Science and
Nutrition, University of Nebraska; Luz Marina Alvare, Head Librarian, International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Jim French, International Institute for
Cooperation in Agriculture; and Jan Poley, CEO, American Distance Education
Consortium (ADEC). King and Poucher serve as co-chairs of the advisory committee.
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3. Dave and Don with PAC @ D Director Antonio Flores (back row) as ADEC CEO Jan Poley and
Zamorano President Ken Hoadley sign ADEC membership agreement.
PAC @ D is a training program, on-line. At the crossroads of excellence and experience,
Zamorano with its partners, corporate and individual, in the development or
improvement of professional and business skills of Latin American agribusiness and
agro-industrial interests, to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the
agricultural and natural resource sector within current and future economic and market
models.
PAC@D
I Programa de Aprendizaje
Continuo a Distancia I
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4. PAC @ D is part of the education offered by Zamorano; it is led and coordinated by the
Center for e-Learning Zamorano. PAC @ D is open to entrepreneurs, producers,
developers, technicians and professionals as a tool for creating in them a culture of
continuous learning for life.
PAC @ D promotes a pedagogical model focused on capacity development and use of
information technology and communication for self learning and decision making. PAC
@ D seeks to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes, solve
problems and minimize risk. The diversity of experience and eco-geographic origin of
teachers and participants contribute significantly to provide a global perspective to
learning and potentially create international communities of business and long-term
collaboration.
Culture of
Continuous Learning
for life
Rational
Information Use Capacity
Development
PAC@D
Interactivity
Internationalization
Relevant and Significant Sector Needs
Relevant and Significant Sector Needs
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5. Teachers, Tutors, and Technical Support
PAC @ D course participants enjoy the permanent support of a professional team
consisting of specialist teachers, tutors and technical support unit.
Specialist teachers are the experts who developed the content and course activities. They
generally participate as guides in the forums and video sessions; they advise, review
and feed back the work to students and respond to technical questions related to the
course.
The tutor is an experienced professional in the study area, dedicated to assisting and
guiding participants in the daily work. Tutors streamline the process of learning.
Throughout the course, the tutor is the main bridge between student participants and
Zamorano.
The Technical Support Unit (Support @ D-PAC) is responsible for helping participants to
any question or technical difficulties related to the management of the Blackboard
platform or any other tool used during the course. This unit ensures open access and
satisfactory fluid spaces of interaction and learning for the program.
Zamorano has a set of means and instruments that allow access and effective use of
information for learning, and support the administrative function. From the
technological point of view, all these facilities are managed by the Information
Technology Unit Zamorano, under the highest safety standards. From an academic
standpoint, this unit supports all activities of teaching, learning and communication
associated with both the residential program and the PAC @ D.
Zamorano continually makes significant investments to improve the ability of the
technology infrastructure and thus ensure that it is constantly updated to help improve
the quality of its offerings to students both resident and at a distance.
Courses
Zamorano began offering distances courses through PAC @ D in September, 2009.
Resident students are not permitted to enroll in the distance courses. The cost of
participating in the program is $450 per student per course. The cost includes academic
and technical support specialist teacher and tutor, access to the learning platform
Blackboard ©, tools and content, service support and Certificate of Participation.
Individual discounts are available for early registration (usually before mid-August 14);
corporate discounts are available to organizations/institutions when registering groups
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6. of five or more participants in one or more courses or promoted from the
organization/institution.
During 2009-10, some 380 distance students were enrolled in 13 courses. A review of
courses offered during 2010 include the following:
• Managing processes within value chains
• Ethics and Professional Conduct
• Management of food safety
• Historical-political context and development
• Decision making in social settings
• Comprehensive quality management of the business functions
• Business management of milk production
Beginning in February, 2011, additional courses will be offered including the following:
• Management of food safety
• Ethics and professional conduct
• Management processes within value chains
• Industrialization of livestock products
• Management of Human Resources
• Management costs for business competitiveness
• Management for international business
• Hydrology for the integrated management of water resources
• Future Energy Alternatives for Sustainable Development
• Business Management of Agricultural Production
Zamorano PAC@D: Programa de Aprendizaje Continuo a Distancia
Since Poucher and King began the e-learning workshop series at Zamorano, the
University has made exceptional progress in building a very sound distance learning
program through PAC @ D. Start-up resources were provided through a major grant
from the Inter-American Development Bank and a major individual gift. Utilizing those
resources, PAC @ D generated program income of $170,000 through the end of 2010.
From program income received, Zamorano supports a PAC & D staff of one
instructional designer, two graphic artists, two programmers, and one information
technology specialist. The tutors utilized in the course offerings are compensated from
PAC @ D revenues and on-campus departments and units involved in the courses also
receive nominal support. Zamorano’s direct investment includes space for the distance
program, general support from the Informatica (IT) unit, and salaries of the overall PAC
@ D director and his assistant, who also functions as an instructional designer.
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7. Satisfaction Survey
Zamorano’s distance courses through PAC @ D’s have enrolled a variety of students
since 2009. For purposes of evaluating the program, the PAC @ D director provided to
Poucher and King the names of 45 different students who have been or are currently
enrolled in the distance courses. Most of these students are those who completed
Zamorano’s three year Agronomo Ingeniero certificate program prior to Zamorano’s
addition of the fourth year bachelor degree program. Their obvious goal is to complete
the fourth year at a distance and obtain their bachelor degrees. These 45 students were
first contacted by email on November 1, 2010 and were asked to complete a satisfaction
survey, which consisted of 11 questions designed to benchmark their views on the PAC
@ D effort (see Appendix I). The survey asked if the students had previously attended
Zamorano as a resident student, their present employment situation, the number of
courses they had taken, if they had completed the courses, if they were now taking
courses, and their attitudes toward the courses including why they were taking the
courses, if they would recommend the PAC @ D courses to friends, and if they were
pleased with their course experience. They were also asked to describe their course
experiences and indicate how the PAC @ D courses could be improved. Of the 45
students surveyed, 32 provided responses (69 %) over a three week period during
which they were reminded twice to return their replies to the email survey. The
question-by-question responses are summarized in Appendix I.
The names of 13 faculty who were teaching PAC @ D courses were also provided by the
program’s director to Poucher and King. Simultaneously with the student survey, the
13 faculty were also contacted by email and asked to complete the satisfaction survey
from their perspective. Of the 13 faculty, 12 (92%+) completed the survey and were
asked to register their views on the PAC @ D distance program and provide data on
student performance and participation (see Appendix II).
The Students – Of those who responded, 78 % had previously attended Zamorano as a
resident student. Some 19 % had not previously attended Zamorano; one chose not to
answer the survey. Of those responding, about 94 % were employed in jobs ranging
from entrepreneurial positions to those of farm/company manager, risk analyst,
comptroller, plant breeder, consultant, operations manager, processing value-added
coordinator, auditor’ technical council president, and food processor. One respondent
was unemployed.
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8. Among the respondents, nearly 44 % (14) had taken six or more courses at a distance;
six had taken one course; three had taken two courses; two had taken three; four had
taken four and one had taken five courses. Nearly 44 % (14) had taken (or were taking)
six courses or more. About 94 % (30) had completed their courses and one had not.
About 81 % (26) were presently taking courses; five were not. All of those who
responded said they would recommend PAC @ D courses to their friends; one did not
respond.
When asked why they were taking courses, nearly 72 % (23) indicated that they wanted
to complete their fourth year at Zamorano; 62 % (20) said they wanted to broaden their
education; 53 % (17) said they wanted to each broaden their education and update their
expertise; more than 12 % (4) said they wanted to find a job, while nearly 16 % said they
had other reasons for taking the courses such as working on master’s degrees.
Some 94 % said they were pleased with their PAC @ D course experience; one was not
pleased and one did not register a response to the question.
Appendix I details the description of the respondents’ course experiences. Among the
opinions offered were that the courses helped them stay up-to-date in their professional
areas, provided a broader view of their businesses, allowed learning while working,
provided new technology and real world relevance, created an idea exchange, and
formed a network of learners.
Also provided in Appendix I, are reasons why a few of the respondents were not
pleased with the PAC @ D courses. Included are conflicts between faculty and student
schedules, lack of time to complete course assignments, and the need for exercises to
apply knowledge learned.
Respondents were also asked how the PAC @ D courses could be improved. Several
indicated that video and video conferences were needed. Some also felt they should
receive more personal attention of professors and more feedback from tutors. Some felt
that students’ progress should be more closely tracked, that course expectations should
be outlined and assigned at the beginning of the course and that the Blackboard©
platform could be more friendly than they experienced.
Generally speaking, the student respondents are very pleased with the PAC @ D
program at Zamorano University. Most were completing their fourth year (to obtain the
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9. baccalaureate) degree. An overwhelming majority had previously attended Zamorano
University as a resident student, were presently employed and had completed the
PAC @ D courses they had undertaken.
The Faculty – Of the 12 faculty respondents, 10 were existing Zamorano faculty; 2 were
former faculty. More than half (7/58%), had taught distance courses. Five (42 %) had
not. Of those who had previously taught at a distance, most (5) had taught only one
course. One had taught two courses. Six did not respond. Courses taught by the faculty
who responded correspond to those previously listed (pages 3 and 4).
When asked about student drop-out rates in their previous and existing courses, half (6)
indicated no drop outs; one had experienced six drop outs; one had 10 drop outs; one
reported more than 10 dropouts, three did not respond.
When asked to indicate the number of students who started distance courses completed
them, two indicated 15-20 finished, one said 10-15, one said less than 10, five indicated
the courses were cancelled, and three did not respond.
According to the faculty who responded, students who take their distance courses
perform either about the same (5) or better than (5) those taking the courses face to face.
Two faculty did not respond to this question.
Faculty also said students either like (8) or like strongly (2) distance courses. One
indicated that students dislike the courses; one did not respond.
According to the 12 faculty respondents, Zamorano faculty neither receive reduced
regular teaching assignments (9) nor extra compensation (9) when teaching distance
courses.
The faculty respondents also said they either like (4) or like strongly (6) distance
teaching. When asked specifically about PAC @ D, they indicated similar opinions.
The faculty responding to the survey offered several suggestions for improving the
PAC @ D system. Several indicated they would like to see improved incentives
(reduced workloads/salary supplements) offered to those who teach distance courses.
They indicated that Zamorano should provide more information technology staff
support and should increase the use of video conferencing. They would like to see PAC
@ D expand its course offerings to other areas, engage in aggressive course sales tactics,
and recruit more students and faculty.
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10. In general, Zamorano students and faculty support the distance education efforts of
Zamorano University through PAC @ D. They like or strongly like the distance learning
concept and believe it should be expanded. Students registered a 94 % satisfaction rate
with PAC @ D; faculty expressed a lower but none the less high satisfaction rate of 75 %.
Both groups believe the PAC @ D program deserves increased support from the
Zamorano administration and believe the distance education effort should be more
aggressive than at present and utilize full video technologies.
Appendix I: Student Survey Results
Student Questionnaire
Zamorano PAC@D: Programa de Aprendizaje Continuo a Distancia
1. Have you previously attended Zamorano as a resident student?
___yes 25
___no 6
Nr 1
2. What is your present employment situation?
___Employed 30 (please indicate current job or work)
risk analyst; producer; company manager; farm manager; assistant
comptroller; plant breeder; consultant; agricultural services
manager; national foundation researcher; grower; farm owner;
agricultural operations manager; processing value added
coordinator; city councilman; auditor; aquaculture farm head;
technical council president; food processor;
___Unemployed 1
NR 1
3. How many courses have you taken?
___1 6
___2 3
___3 2
___4 4
___5 1
___6 or more 14
4. Did you complete the course(s)?
___yes 30
___no 1
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11. NR 1
5. Are you now taking courses with PAC@D?
___yes(please list) 26
___no 5
NR 1
6. Would you recommend courses through PAC@D to your friends?
___yes 31
___no --
NR 1
7. Why were/are you taking course(s)? (choose as many as may apply)
___complete the 4th year at Zamorano 23
___improve my professional skills 17
___broaden my education 20
___update my expertise 17
___help me find a job 4
___other (please explain)_________ 2
working on masters degrees in envirornmental science
8. Were you pleased with your course experience?
___Yes 30
___No 1
NR 1
9. If you were pleased, describe your experience (please print).
Refresher courses; Helps me stay up to date; broader view of business;
courses adapted to experience of students; allowed me to work and learn;
learn new technology and real world relevance; good for technical updates;
information tools are professional; teachers know what they are doing;
creates an ideas exchange; forms a network (of learners)
10. If you were not pleased, describe your experience (please print).
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12. Appears to be conflict with faculty schedule and student schedule; not
enough time to complete assignments; course schedule changes are
confusing; need exercises for applying knowledge learned
11.How could courses be improved?
Use more videos and discussion groups; greater use of blogs; make courses
more applicable to actual jobs; more personal attention by professors; more
emphasis on new technology and application; more feedback from tutors and
lecturers; assign course expectations at beginning of course; course platform
(Blackboard) could be more friendly; improve communication between
faculty and students; track each student’s progress more closely.
Appendix II: Faculty Survey
Faculty Questionnaire
Zamorano PAC@D: Programa de Aprendizaje Continuo a Distancia
1. What is your position/relationship with Zamorano?
___Faculty 10
___Former Faculty 2
2. Have you ever taught a Zamorano course for students at a distance?
___yes 7
___no 5
3. If yes, how many Zamorano courses have you taught at a distance?
___1 5
___2 1
___3
___4
___5
___6
Nr 2 (first time)
Na 4
4. Please list course(s) taught at a distance.
Hydrology, agricultural production systems, making decisions in social
settings, management of food systems and food safety, dairy production
systems, administration of productive food chains, integrated quality
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13. management, multi-component agricultural production systems, socio-
economic monitoring in coastal systems.
5. How many students who started any of your distance courses dropped out
without finishing the course?
__0 6
___1 ___7
___2 ___8
___3 ___9
___4 ___10 1
___5 ___more than 10 1
___6 1 NR 3
6. How many students who started any of your distance courses finished
them?
___less than 10 1 ___25-30
___10-15 1 ___35-40
___15-20 2 ___more than 40 (How many_____)
___20-25 NR 3
NA 5 (course not completed)
7. How would you compare the performance in meeting learning objectives of
students taking your course at a distance to those taking it face-to-face at
Zamorano?
___Better than 5
___About the same 5
___Worse than
NR 2
8. How do you think students feel about distant courses?
___like strongly 2
___like 8
___no opinion
___dislike 1
___dislike strongly
NR 1
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14. 9. Have you ever received reductions in regular teaching assignments when
you teach distance courses?
___Yes
___No 9
NR 3
10. Have you ever received extra compensation when you teach distance
courses?
___Yes 1
___No 9
NR 2
11. How do you view distance teaching?
___dislike strongly
___dislike
___no opinion
___like 4
___like strongly 6
NR 2
12. Indicate how you feel about PAC@D’s tutor system.
___dislike strongly
___dislike
___no opinion 1
___like 3
___like strongly 6
NR 2
13. Indicate one way PAC@D could be improved.
More IT staff
Improve incentives for participating faculty
Expand to other areas (courses)
Improve recruitment of students
Greater use of video conferencing
More aggressive selling of courses
Recruit more teachers
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15. Teachers need relief from routine assignments
Need more supporting materials
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